This thread is a great example of what would likely happen if editing features were added to PM. There's never enough to satisfy everyone, and users want more, more, and then more. We've seen requests from simple "crop-straightening" to "80% of Lightroom's develop module" (wow!). I would hate to see PM's limited development resources be diverted from what makes this program so useful in it's current state.
Also, I am having difficulty with the arguments against using an external editor. It can't be much simpler than selected one or more images, and pressing Ctrl-E. Once you are in PS, you can apply actions to speed up editing. Which, BTW, would probably be one of the first feature requests after PM released a version with basic editing features
. When you're done, the updated images are available in PM for the next step. Everything you could possibly need for editing is already there.
Regarding the post about using the Mac's core-image engine, how would the Windows version be addressed?
Just my initial thoughts...